New Film Explores Efforts To Determine What A 9/11 Victim's Life Is 'Worth'

Two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, attorney Kenneth Feinberg faced a truly impossible task.

After four plane hijackings killed nearly 3,000 people on 9/11, concern arose that thousands of surviving loved ones would sue and bankrupt the airlines. Feinberg was appointed by the George W. Bush administration to be the administrator of the taxpayer-funded congressional Victim Compensation Fund — to decide what a life was worth and to convince family members to accept his assessment.

Feinberg successfully settled the claims of thousands of Vietnam War veterans injured by the chemical agent orange. At first, he brought that same businesslike approach to the 9/11 fund but later learned this was a mistake.

Feinberg’s story and 2005 book “What Is Life Worth? are now the basis of the new Netflix film "Worth." Michael Keaton plays Feinberg and Amy Ryan stars as his office administrator Camille Biros.